BACKGROUND
"Der Erlkönig" was one of Schubert's first published work written at the age of 18. The text comes originally from Danish mythology, which was translated to German in 1778 by Johann Gottfried von Herder for a collection of songs. The poet Johann Goethe then wrote a poem based on this song. This poem is the text adopted by Schubert for "Der Erlkönig". The full text and english translation can be found here.
STORY OUTLINE
An anxious young boy is being carried home at night by his father on horseback. As the poem unfolds, the son seems to see and hear beings his father does not; the reader cannot know if the father is indeed aware of their presence, but he chooses to comfort his son, asserting reassuringly naturalistic explanations for what the child sees – a wisp of fog, rustling leaves, shimmering willows. Finally, the child shrieks that he has been attacked. The father rides faster to the Hof (home). There he recognizes that the boy is dead.
LISTENING
"Der Erlkönig" was one of Schubert's first published work written at the age of 18. The text comes originally from Danish mythology, which was translated to German in 1778 by Johann Gottfried von Herder for a collection of songs. The poet Johann Goethe then wrote a poem based on this song. This poem is the text adopted by Schubert for "Der Erlkönig". The full text and english translation can be found here.
STORY OUTLINE
An anxious young boy is being carried home at night by his father on horseback. As the poem unfolds, the son seems to see and hear beings his father does not; the reader cannot know if the father is indeed aware of their presence, but he chooses to comfort his son, asserting reassuringly naturalistic explanations for what the child sees – a wisp of fog, rustling leaves, shimmering willows. Finally, the child shrieks that he has been attacked. The father rides faster to the Hof (home). There he recognizes that the boy is dead.
LISTENING
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ANALYSIS
The piece begins with a fast triplet motif being played on the tonic (G) by the right hand. This rhythm is carried out through much of the piece and represents the one character that is not vocalised; the horse. This motif can be seen below. The left hand has a different repeating motif which acts to establish added tension to the music by accenting the minor key.
At bar 15, we are first introduced to the character of the narrator, who always sings in a minor key in the middle of the vocal range, establishing the somber tone of the text with the minor key, but demonstrating that the narrator is impartial by the midrange vocals. The narrator tells how the father in the story, is racing on horseback getting his feverish son home. The father character enters at bar 36, this time in a lower register to represent the older, fatherly figure, asks his son why he is so afraid. The son replies that he can see the Erlkönig chasing them home, once again changing the tone colour of the voice and sitting right at the top of the register and always in a minor key.
At the mention of the Erlkönig (a metaphor for the personification of death), the music modulates to the relative major (B flat major) for the verse sung by the Erlkönig. In this section, the texture changes dramatically from the ominous music preceding it to an almost jolly feeling, slightly ironic considering it is sung by death, but not unnecessarily so as in this scene Erlkönig is attempting to seduce the son with "garments of gold" and other objects of desire and so dons a friendly jovial persona which is represented by the playful shift in music. One other noticeable change in this section is the lack of the triplet-driven horse galloping motif which had devoured the left hand up until this point. The energy created by the triplets is not lost, however the familiar rhythm is less recognisable. This less distinguished horse galloping feeling is most likely to show musically the fading of the son's consciousness towards death. The change of left rhythm can be seen in the below picture:
The Erlkönig sings at three points during the piece, each in major keys; (first Bb, C and finally Eb - Noticeably moving up in pitch each time) These verses by the Erlkönig are of course interspersed by minor verses from the father and son. This frequent modulation (Bb Maj >> b min >> C Maj >> C# min >> D min >> E Maj) increases the unpredictability of the piece as well as building tension due to the rising keys. These modulations occur more and more often, along with a crescendo until the culmination of the piece in which the character of the son succumbs to Erlkönig in a musically spectacular death.
The recitative which ends the piece brings the music back to the "home" key of G minor, which is also symbolic of the father arriving home with child in his arms (dead).